The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

Loading ...

Loading ...

This story appears in the {{article.article.magazine.pretty_date}} issue of {{article.article.magazine.pubName}}. Subscribe

In a typical season, programs from the six major conferences gobble the majority of at-large bids to the NCAA and NIT college basketball tournaments.

For example, members of the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12 and SEC earned 29 of the 36 at-large bids that join 32 automatic qualifiers to build the 2015 NCAA tournament field. Teams from the AAC, Atlantic 10 and Mountain West typically claim the rest, leaving non-championship teams from the 23 conferences that are considered “mid-major” - or lower - seeking opportunities for postseason competition.

“I think the CIT means the world to mid and low major programs,” says Texas A&M Corpus Christi coach Willis Wilson, whose team has participated in the CIT the last two years. “Without a tournament like this, teams don’t have the chance to experience the postseason. When you look at the track records of the CIT, it’s propelled a lot of teams into better seasons. Playing late in March is a big deal.”

Grand Canyon University is in the third year of a five-year reclassifying process to Division I and is ineligible for both the NCAA and NIT. The basketball team entered the final week of the regular season with a 24-5 record and is expected to compete in the CIT for the third time in four years.

Although the Antelopes lost their opening round games both years, participating in the tournament has been a positive experience.

“In terms of working with the people who run the event, it’s been positive.” Grand Canyon senior associate athletics director for business Keith Baker said. “We are branding ourselves as a mid-major and the CIT really caters to that group of institutions within the NCAA. That’s an identity for us as well, where we’re comparing ourselves to like institutions as far as what we’re putting in resource wise to develop our programs.”

The CIT started in 2009 as a 16-team event. Positive response and feedback led founders Joe Dwyer and Angela Lento to expand to 24 teams in 2011 and to the current 32-team field in 2012. The field is comprised solely of members from conferences outside the Power Five conferences.

The field is selected after the NCAA and the NIT hand out their bids on Selection Sunday, which is on March 13th this year. The NIT gives automatic bids to teams who win the regular season championship in their conference but do not receive an NCAA invitation. Last season five mid-major programs received “at-large” bids to the NIT.

Teams play in a tournament bracket, like the NCAA or NIT, with the finalists meeting in late March to determine a champion.

Only teams that finish the regular season with a winning overall record are eligible to play in the CIT, and any team wanting to participate must be willing to host in either of the first two rounds - at a cost of $38,500.

The hosting fee is used to help visiting teams offset travel costs. The CIT tries to match opponents from similar regions, and pays all traveling expenses for a party of 22 to travel (air, hotel, bus and food) regardless of cost. It also compensates game officials, who are assigned by Rick Boyages, associate commissioner of the Big Ten Conference. The CIT covers all costs related to television production (the tournament is broadcast on CBS Sports Network) and internet streaming (via Sidearm), as well as providing t-shirts and other gear for participating players.

Host schools keep 100% of the gate and any related concessions or parking. In addition, they have the freedom to secure local sponsorship to underwrite the game and can keep any other funds raised related to the game.

Fans support their teams in the CIT.

In the 2015 CIT semifinals, Northern Arizona set a school attendance record with 5,583 fans; that is higher than 23 of the 28 home games played in the NIT. On average, the CIT championship game has drawn crowds comparable or significantly larger than the NIT Championship, which is played each year in Madison Square Garden (MSG). The 2013 NIT final between Iowa and Baylor drew 5,301 to MSG, whereas the Weber State vs. East Carolina matchup in the CIT championship drew a crowd of 10,583.

Evansville, a member of the Missouri Valley Conference, won the 2015 CIT. The Purple Aces had a roster filled with players who returned this season, such as the leading scorer in program history D.J. Balentine and the leading rebounder in the nation Egidijus Mockevicius. Having the opportunity to give those players postseason experience made the CIT a perfect fit.

Evansville athletic director Mark Spencer said this season his program reaped the financial benefit from last year’s participation in the CIT.

“If you make it into the third or fourth round, you can make your money back,” Spencer said. “It’s not a big financial success when you’re doing it. The boon is the following year. It’s really an investment piece.”

Season ticket sales increased by 20% this season compared to last, and Spencer said and single game sales increased 30%.

The CIT is filled with financial success stories.

In 2010, Pacific advanced to the CIT championship game without spending any money out of its athletic department budget. Bradley used money it earned in 2009 to pay for a men’s basketball exhibition trip to South America the following year. Texas A&M Corpus Christi, which has only been a Division I member for 16 years and had never participated in the postseason before the 2014 CIT, set a record for walk-up single-game ticket sales when it played host to Kent State in the second round last season.

“Just having a chance to win and host a game has definitely helped our season ticket sales,” Texas A&M Corpus Christi coach Wilson said. “Gains are incremental; going to postseason and playing a really good game against a good opponent on our home floor provided incentive for people to come to our games.”

The Islanders average home attendance increased from 1,397 fans per game in 2014-15 to 1,739 this season.

For a fledgling program like Texas A&M - Corpus Christi, competing in the CIT helps lend credibility within the local community and within Division I college basketball.

“All the way down the roster it’s valuable experience to play a game in that environment,” Wilson said. “The CIT is providing that opportunity to play in the postseason, to hang a banner in your gym. It means that you have a chance to build some tradition, something you can hang your hat on later on down the line to let people know you’re doing the right things and you’ve been rewarded for doing the right things.”

The benefits of the CIT go beyond dollars and cents.

St. Francis (Pa.) participated in the 2015 CIT, playing host to Bowling Green. It was the program’s first postseason appearance in two decades, and athletic director Bob Kimmel viewed it as a positive experience with a multitude of rewards.

“We just had a fantastic experience,” Kimmel said. “The communication with the CIT committee was phenomenal. We never were wanting for a detail, had everything we needed. They were so professional in every sense of the word. It was such a positive experience. We’d jump at the opportunity again,” he adds.

St. Francis drew more than 1,100 fans and lost the game. But that didn’t damper the experience, according to Kimmel.

“It was very, very special for those men who were part of the experience, but not just for the players,” he said. “It was great for our band, our cheerleaders, our spirit group and also our fans that have been so loyal through those years where it’s been thick and thin but more thin than thick. It was a great opportunity to reward them as well. It’s a great student-athlete experience, a great university experience for us.”

This year, the CIT is also paying homage to the history of college basketball by honoring a pioneer of the game with the addition of the John McLendon Classic, a first round tournament game which will be televised March 14th on CBS Sports Network. McLendon, an African-American, was a legendary coach who learned basketball from its founder, Dr. James Naismith, and revolutionized the game via the fastbreak offense. He became the first college coach to win three consecutive national championships, leading Tennessee State to the NAIA title in 1957, 1958 and 1959.

“He was a guy who was kind of a maverick,” Wilson said. “He did it with a lot of class. He was an educator. He was a student of the game. He taught the game of basketball, he taught the game of life. And, it’s a little bit disappointing that people just really don’t know that name. John McLendon was as good a coach as there was. He represented the game in every aspect of his life, as a man, as a minority as a coach as a father as a teacher. He was just second to none. To me he’s been a role model. I think it’s a big deal.”

Wilson is happy to see the game come to fruition, even if it is long overdue. He believes mid-major college basketball programs were also neglected for many years, but the CIT is shining a well-deserved light on the players and coaches who otherwise would have no postseason home.